Our Story

In 2003, at the request of Anne Stanback, Executive Director of Love Makes a Family, Dr. Julio Morales, Professor Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, School of Social Work, organized Latinas and Latinos for Marriage Equality. This was an ad hoc group of heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Latinos who believed that the freedom to marry the person of one's choice was a fundamental right of every American citizen.

In May 2004 Latinas and Latinos for Marriage Equality was disbanded and CLARO was born. Since then, CLARO volunteers and members have been involved in policy, education, and advocacy in addition to, sponsoring plays; participating in Gay Pride events, holding fundraisers, social functions and its annual Rainbow Ball that was begun in 2009.

CLARO in now planning a conference called D'eso No Se Habla, translated as "One Does Not Speak About That" to be held in 2015 that will bring together LGBT Latino individuals and families in efforts to address cultural and linguistic issues relating to homophobia, to support Latino/families that are proud of their LGBTQI members and to help LGBTQI families and individuals.

Our Pilot Community Assessment

The design and implementation of a pilot community assessment to further understand the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of Latina/os around issues of homosexuality is part of a long-term strategic plan of CLARO to increase awareness of LGBT issues in the Latina/o community and to achieve social justice and human rights goals for the LGBTQI community.

The main objectives of the pilot community assessment are to begin to understand Latina/o’s knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of the LGBT community and to use the initial information to further develop other research, educational and outreach tools and activities to achieve the goals and mission of CLARO.

This pilot assessment was made possible with the support of the CLARO Board, CLARO members and a small grant from the Haymarket Foundation. Download the report here!